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Omnibus Would Grandfather Broadcaster Joint Sales Agreements

Keep up with the latest developments and legal issues in the telecommunications and emerging technology sectors, with exclusive access to a comprehensive collection of telecommunications law news,...

By Lydia Beyoud

Dec. 16 — Congress included in its proposed $1.1 trillion omnibus bill provisions that would stymie restrictions on broadcast ownership limitations put in place by the Federal Communications Commission in 2014.

The fiscal year 2016 spending bill (H.R. 2029) would
grandfather in, for 10 years, joint sales agreements (JSAs) between
broadcast TV stations in the same market to share advertising and
other resources that were in existence on or before March 31, 2014,
in what would be a major boon to TV broadcasters. Those agreements
would be covered through Sept. 30, 2025.

An FCC spokesman declined to comment on the
bill.

The commission determined by a 3-2 party-line vote
on March 31, 2014 that JSAs were attributable under the
commission's media ownership restrictions . Commission Chairman Tom
Wheeler said the vote closed a loophole used to circumvent the
rules and was intended to prevent ownership consolidation.

“NAB applauds all of the hard work that went into
including a joint sales agreement grandfathering provision in the
proposed omnibus appropriations bill,” National Association of
Broadcasters spokesman Dennis Wharton said via e-mail. “This
provision would allow TV stations to better serve our viewers in
smaller markets, and ensure that constituents in those communities
continue to have access to numerous free, local programming
option,” he said.

The 2,009-page proposed bill also includes language
prohibiting the FCC from using appropriations to modify, amend or
change its rules or regulations for universal service support
payments to implement recommendations from 2004 on single
connection or primary line restrictions on universal service
support payments.

New Appropriations Level

The Federal Communications Commission would be
allotted $384 million under the measure, slightly below the $388
million the Obama administration had sought in its FY 2016 budget
request in February. Of that amount, $44 million is designated to
facilitate the agency's move to a new location when its current
lease runs out in 2017.

Lawmakers did not include any policy riders against
the FCC's net neutrality rules, despite rumors in recent weeks that
such language might be inserted into the bill. Congress is expected
to return to work on possible compromise net neutrality legislation
sometime in 2016, pending the outcome of a federal court decision
on the FCC's controversial Open Internet reclassification
order.

Public interest groups heralded the exclusion of net
neutrality provisions in the bill. “Congress created the FCC to
serve as the expert agency on communications networks and to deal
with technical policy issues on behalf of the public interest,”
Chris Lewis, vice president of government affairs for public
interest group Public Knowledge, said in a statement.” The
additional funding for the FCC in Fiscal Year 2016 will enable the
agency to continue promoting the public interest in a time of great
technical innovation and rapid transition,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lydia Beyoud
in Washington at lbeyoud@bna.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Keith Perine in Washington at kperine@bna.com

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